South Lodge after Pitt Rivers

Abstract

Between 1880 and 1893 General Pitt Rivers excavated two Bronze Age sites inside his park at Rushmore. In 1880 and 1884 he investigated a cemetery of six barrows at Barrow Pleck, and in 1893 he went on to examine the small enclosure known as South Lodge Camp, which is situated about 130m to the south. These excavations are reported in his volumes on Cranborne Chase, which are still referred to as a model of 'total publication' (Pitt Rivers, 1888, 1898; Alcock, 1978). The results of this work raised the possibility that here was a rare case of a prehistoric settlement associated with its cemetery, but other aspects of the sites, in particular the nature and chronology of the enclosure, have aroused greater interest among later generations of archaeologists. Until recently, it has been uncertain how far this published record can be reinterpreted. Since 1977 we have carried out fresh excavations on both sites. These have taken in the entire enclosure, parts of its field system and selective re-examination of the barrow cemetery. With the completion of that work we are able to offer a summary of the results and a comparison between our findings and those of the General. The first section of this account reconsiders Pitt Rivers's excavation and summarizes our main conclusions concerning his working methods. It is also a contribution to the current debate on the nature of archaeological publication. The second part describes the results of our own work on these sites between 1977 and 1981.